USB-C Deskradar Turns an ESP32-C3 Into Flight Radar

Every so often a maker project lands that is not trying to be a product, a platform, or a disruption — it is just a nice object that does one thing well. The USB-C Deskradar, covered by CNX Software on August 27, 2026, is one of those: a round-screened desk gadget that shows the aircraft flying near you, live, driven by a $1 microcontroller.

• Built around an ESP32-C3 with 400KB SRAM, 4MB flash and a 160 MHz clock
• Uses a 1.28-inch round 240x240 TFT colour LCD with a GC9A01 controller over SPI
• Pulls live ADS-B aircraft positions from the open adsb.fi or OpenSky Network APIs, refreshing every five seconds
• Sells for roughly $26.93 on AliExpress, or under $10 in parts for a DIY build

How Does the Deskradar Get Flight Data?

There is no radio receiver in it, which is the clever part. Rather than decoding 1090 MHz ADS-B transmissions locally — which needs an SDR dongle and an antenna with a view of the sky — the Deskradar connects over Wi-Fi and queries an open ADS-B aggregation API. Both adsb.fi and the OpenSky Network expose position data contributed by volunteer ground receivers, and the device polls one of them every five seconds, then plots the results on a sonar-style circular sweep centred on your location.

That design choice is why it can be this small and this cheap. It also means it works indoors, in a basement, or anywhere a rooftop antenna is not an option.

What Hardware Is Inside?

The ESP32-C3 is the RISC-V single-core member of the ESP32 family — 400KB of SRAM, 4MB of flash, up to 160 MHz, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE built in. It is not the part you would pick for heavy work, but drawing a few dozen aircraft icons on a 240x240 panel every five seconds is comfortably inside its envelope. Anyone weighing the family up will find our ESP32 variant selection guide useful here.

The display is a 1.28-inch round TFT with a GC9A01 controller on SPI, and the round format is doing real work — a circular panel makes a radar sweep feel native rather than cropped. Power and programming both come over USB-C, and a ceramic antenna handles the wireless side.

Can You Build One Yourself?

Yes, and cheaply. Two open-source GitHub projects match the hardware and behaviour — arvis91/deskradar and MatixYo/ESP32-Plane-Radar — with firmware built on Arduino and PlatformIO using the LovyanGFX graphics library and ArduinoJson for parsing the API responses. Printable case files are available free on MakerWorld.

CNX Software puts a from-scratch build at under $10 in components against roughly $26.93 for the assembled unit on AliExpress. That is an unusually small gap, and for most people the assembled version is the sensible buy — the DIY route is worth it if you want to modify the firmware, which is where the fun actually is.

What Would You Change First?

The obvious hack is swapping the data source for a local ADS-B receiver if you already run one, which removes the API dependency and the five-second poll. After that: filtering by altitude to hide overflights, adding an airline or aircraft-type filter, or repurposing the whole thing as a generic round-screen dashboard for anything with a JSON endpoint.

That last option is the real appeal. The Deskradar is a well-executed reference design for a cheap round-display Wi-Fi widget, and flight tracking is only the first thing to put on it. It is a good companion project to the ESP32 DIN-rail PLC controller we covered this week, and one more entry in the steady stream of small, satisfying builds across our mini computer coverage.

Sources: CNX Software — August 27, 2026; OpenSky Network — open ADS-B data API documentation.